6-Time Juno (Canadian Grammy) Nominee, Carol Wels-man launches Alone Together, showcasing the rhythmic swing of her piano playing, the warm, embracing sound of her voice, and her irresistible way with a lyric. Early reviews have cited Alone Together as the album that will cement Welsman s ascendency to the upper levels of the contemporary jazz vocal worldrol s voice and piano are backed by an assemblage of world class players that include trumpeter Wallace Roney, bassist Rufus Reid, drummer Lewis Nash and guitarist Jay Azzolina. Together, Carol and her musicians interact with the intuitive togetherness of jazz vocalizing at its fin-est. - Don Heckman- International Review of Music...the songs sung and played by Carol Welsman are a thrill you can only feel and experience with awe but find hard to explain, like your first ride on a roller coaster. Blessed with so many musical gifts taste, time, projection and a rhythmic sense of when to change chords Carol s piano is beyond reproach, warm yet rhythmically sharp, giving her voice a perfect hammock of support to swing in. I m not an easy pushover, but she s got what it takes to take me. REVIEW In ALONE TOGETHER, her eleventh album, the briskly rhythmic swing of Carol s piano playing, the warm, embracing sound of her voice, combined with her irresistible way with a lyric, brightly illuminate her rising ascendency to the upper levels of the contemporary jazz vocal world.All of the qualities mentioned above her piano playing, singing, musical story telling are fully present in Carol s art. And each plays a significant role. Listening, for example, to the far-ranging styles of the individual songs in ALONE TOGETHER, one cannot fail to be impressed by her vocals, with their enchanting interpretive skills, as they bring lyrics vividly to life. Whether Carol is singing intimate ballads such as IT MIGHT AS WELL BE SPRING, IF THE MOON TURNS TO GREEN, or I DIDN T KNOW ABOUT YOU, the deeply grooving THE BLUES ARE OUT OF TOWN, or the bebop vocalese of the Charlie Parker solo she scats on DISAPPOINTED, her captivating phrasing expresses the essence of the inner story in every song.Add to that the significance of Carol s piano playing, backed by an assemblage of world class players that include trumpeter Wallace Roney, guitarist Jay Azzolina, bassist Rufus Reid and drummer Lewis Nash. Together, Carol and her musicians interact with the intuitive togetherness of jazz vocalizing at its finest.All of which places her among an elite number of singer/pianists in both the past and the present who have defined themselves, not only as singers, but as jazz pianists, as well. Think Nina Simone, Mary Lou Williams, Shirley Horn, Eliane Elias and Diana Krall.That s a list that includes Carol, as well. Canadian-born, her musical skills have been acknowledged in her home country with six Juno (Canadian Grammy) Award nominations and a National Jazz Award. Her 2009 recording, I LIKE MEN! - REFLECTIONS OF MISS PEGGY LEE, was voted one of the Top Five Albums of the Year (all genres) in USA Today. Carol was flattered to learn recently that she was one of Oscar Peterson s favorite singers according to his wife, Kelly Peterson.The only thing missing from her many accomplishments so far, at least is a Grammy nomination. An absence which may trace to the fact that her career, which reaches back to the mid-nineties, hasn t always thoroughly emphasized her extraordinary abilities as a piano-playing singer. Most of her album covers, in fact, have featured appealing images of her blond beauty, without including a piano anywhere nearby. Not so with ALONE TOGETHER, which displays a set of images illustrating the intimate linkage between Carol and her piano a linkage which is also showcased in every track on the album. Notice, for example, the way she locks her improvised vocal lines with piano block harmonies on tunes such as DAY BY DAY and the title track an inventive technique that is very much her own. Perhaps understandably, Carol describes ALONE TOGETHER as, my truest to the jazz form to date. And she is correct in expressing her pride in the album s jazz riches especially the hard swinging improvisational aspects of her too often overlooked piano playing, as she leads her stellar band into one body-moving groove after another. --Don Heckman